The smells of fresh fish mingled with the saltiness of the sea. An unusual feeling of calm had settled over her. It probably had everything to do wit... the relief of knowing these men weren’t about to hurt her for no reason. If they had wanted to do that, they would have done it already. They wouldn’t have helped her last night either, because it would have been easy enough for them to just walk away from her. Especially when they realized they weren’t about to capture her father, or get any of. But he remembered that Tom had told him that the gear for him wasan outer show of inner intentions; that he liked to dominate and controlwith or without fetish gear. Martin felt a little cheated all the same, thatthere were not these outer signs to help prepare him for what lay ahead.Then the time came to start. Martin removed his clothes, folded them neatly and put them to one side.Always looking deeply into his eyes, Tom fastened a leather collar aroundhis neck, attached a chain to it and led. Jake sprang toward him, his hands coming down hard on the top of the briefcase, trapping the lawyer’s hands inside. Jake read the lawyer to see where the gun was pointing. It was uncomfortably close to Jake’s left leg. Jake pushed on one side of the briefcase, shifting it so that the gun pointed at the table with Vincent and the other two lawyers. Jake made the assassin’s trigger finger jerk and the gun fired. One of the lawyers screamed.Brian sprang from his position and grabbed the lawyer in. ."Ash? You in there?" Dad asks, knocking on my door and making me panic."Uh- hang on, I'm just getting changed," I say, grimacing as I tear alarge hole in my tights in my rush to remove them from my legs. Nowonder the girls always carry spare pairs with them..."Come on, Ash, what's taking so long?" Dad asks. "It isn't anything Ihaven't seen before, you know..." Okay, ready," I say, hastily stuffing the dress into my suitcase andpulling my jeans and sweatshirt back on."Going barefoot, are we?".